1/22/2006

A thought-provoking piece (Eternally Teenaged) argues that adolescence in the US now extends into the early 30s -- perhaps as a result of over-pressurized childhoods that, among other things, render children useless much longer and more profoundly than need be:

"Contemporary childhood pressures children intensely but seems to do little to make them feel ready for adulthood... Perplexed parents [provide] ever more tutors, soccer skills camps and ballet lessons. They exhaust themselves ... and guarantee that children have no opportunity to make real contributions to family survival or well-being. ... No wonder they spend every free second in some virtual world - computer or television screens before them, iPods in their ears."